Our keys to the game - diversity, stop the run, and being special. How did we do?
Diversity
If there was a more diverse offense than yesterday's somewhere else in the nation, I wasn't aware of it. A big pass play to Maurice Purify (beautiful play at that), a big run play by Brandon Jackson (well, technically a pass,wasn't it?), and a big gadget play - the option touchdown pass Marlon Lucky to Nate Swift.
Stop the Run
Texas had 128 total yards on the ground, nearly their lowest output of the season. Their lowest total came against Oklahoma, where they had only 124 yards rushing. Can't really complain about that, can we?
We did a decent job of containing Texas's offense, but Colt McCoy looked pretty good for a Freshman quarterback.
Be Special
We started the game giving up a huge run on a kickoff return that resulted in three points for Texas. There's the game right there. Not very special. We have a tendency to look at the end of the game as to what cost us - Nunn's fumble - but the truth is we lost it early when we allowed a huge play on the first play of the game.
Instead of fielding punts, we let them roll, another huge mistake, especially since one of those punts ended up at our
In the kicking game, Texas did us the huge favor of missing a couple chip-shot field goals, but they could have done us a bigger favor and continued it at the end.
Other Notes
Amongst our concerns - answering BON's questions, we mentioned Sweed. He burned us for a huge pass play - is it me, or wasn't Andre Jones close enough to at least try tackling him?
Suh only had one tackle on the day.
Nebraska got three sacks, but gave up four. I thought that Taylor looked a little rattled after being hit.
The Big Question
Is whether or not Bill Callahan mismanaged the end of the game. Had he used his timeouts, and gotten the ball back with just a little more time, don't you think we could have manuevered into position for Congdon to kick a game-winner? I haven't seen many mention this - it is hindsight being 20-20, but isn't that a viable option to challenging a pass play to ice a kicker. I know - if the icing would have worked he would have looked like a genius.
And since it didn't work, isn't end of game mismanagement a fair question?